by bringing to a head an enterprise against the Turks—then
masters of the Mediterranean. He negotiated an alliance
between the Venetians and Spaniards, contributed ships and
soldiers, and secured the election of Don John of Austria to the
supreme command. He was privileged to survive the victory
of the Christians at Lepanto; but on the 1st of May in the
following year he died, as piously as he had lived. The last
pope to be canonized, his pontificate marks the zenith of the
Catholic reformation.
The renewed vigour which this internal reformation had infused into the Church was now manifest in its external effects; and Pius V., the pope of reform, was followed by the popes of the Catholic restoration. These, without intermitting the work of reformation, endeavoured by every means to further the outward expansion of Catholicism. On the one hand missions were despatched to America, India, China and Japan: on the other, a strenuous attempt was made to reannex the conquests of Protestantism. In a word, the age of the Catholic restoration was beginning—a movement which has been misnamed the counter Reformation. In this period, the newly created religious orders were the right arm of the papacy, especially the Jesuits and the Capuchins. In place of the earlier supineness, the battle was now joined all along the line. Everywhere, in Germany and France, in Switzerland and the Low Countries, in Poland and Hungary, efforts were made to check the current of Protestantism and to re-establish the orthodox faith. This activity extended to wider and wider areas, and enterprises were even set on foot to regain England, Sweden and Russia for the Church. This universal outburst of energy for the restoration of Catholicism, which only came to a standstill in the middle of the 17th century, found one of its Gregory XIII., 1572–1585. most zealous promotors in Ugo Boncompagni—Pope Gregory XIII. Though not of an ascetic nature, he followed unswervingly in the path of his predecessors by consecrating his energies to the translation of the reformatory decrees into practice. At the same time he showed himself anxious to further the cause of ecclesiastical instruction and Catholic science. He created a special Congregation to deal with episcopal affairs, and organized the Congregation of the Index, instituted by Pius V. On behalf of the diffusion of Catholicism throughout the world he spared no efforts; and wherever he was able he supported the great restoration. He was especially active in the erection and encouragement of educational institutions. In Rome he founded the splendid College of the Jesuits; and he patronized the Collegium Germanicum of St Ignatius; while, at the same time, he found means for the endowment of English and Irish colleges. In fact, his generosity for the cause of education was so unbounded that he found himself in financial difficulties. Gregory did good service, moreover, by his reform of the calendar which bears his name, by his emended edition of the Corpus juris canonici and by the creation of nunciatures. That he celebrated the night of St Bartholomew was due to the fact that, according to his information, the step was a last resort to ensure the preservation of the royal family and the Catholic religion from the attacks of the revolutionary Huguenots. In his political enterprises he was less fortunate. He proved unable to devise a common plan of action on the part of the Catholic princes against Elizabeth of England and the Turks; while he was also powerless to check the spread of brigandage in the papal state.
On the death of Gregory XIII., Felice Peretti, cardinal of
Montalto, a member of the Franciscan order, ascended the
Apostolic throne as Sixtus V. (April 1585–August
1590). His first task was the extirpation of the
bandits and the restoration of order within the papal
state. In the course of a year the drastic measures of this
Sixtus V.,
1585–1590.
born ruler made this state the safest country in Europe. He
introduced a strictly ordered administration, encouraged the
sciences, and enlarged the Vatican library, housing it in a
splendid building erected for the purpose in the Vatican itself.
He was an active patron of agriculture and commerce: he even
interested himself in the draining of the Pontine marshes. The financial system he almost completely reorganized. With a boldness worthy of Julius II., he devised the most gigantic schemes for the annihilation of the Turkish Empire and the conquest of Egypt and Palestine. Elizabeth of England he wished to restore to the Roman obedience either by conversion or by force; but these projects were shattered by the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Down to his death the pope kept a vigilant eye on the troubles in France. Here his great object was to save France for the Catholic religion, and, as far as possible, to secure her position as a power of the first rank. To this fundamental axiom of his policy he remained faithful throughout all vicissitudes.
In Rome itself Sixtus displayed extraordinary activity. The Pincian, the Esquiline, and the south-easterly part of the Caelian hills received essentially their present form by the creation of the Via Sistina, Felice, delle Quattro Fontane, di Sta Croce in Gerusalemme, &c.; by the buildings at Sta Maria Maggiore, the Villa Montalto, the reconstruction of the Lateran, and the aqueduct of the Felice, which partially utilized the Alexandrina and cost upwards of 300,000 scudi. The erection of the obelisks of the Vatican, the Lateran, the Piazza del Popolo and the square behind the tribune of Sta Maria Maggiore lent a lustre to Rome which no other city in the world could rival. The columns of Trajan and Antoninus were restored and bedecked with gilded statues of the Apostles; nor was this the only case in which the high-minded pope made the monuments of antiquity subservient to Christian ideas. His principal architect was Domenico Fontana, who, in conjunction with Guglielmo della Porta, completed the uniquely beautiful cupola of St Peter’s which had already been designed by Michelangelo in a detailed model. In Santa Maria Maggiore the pope erected the noble Sistine Chapel, in which he was laid to rest. Indeed, the monumental character of Rome dates from this era. The organizing activity of Sixtus V. was not, however, restricted to the Eternal City, but extended to the whole administration of the Church. The number of cardinals was fixed at seventy—six bishops, fifty priests and fourteen deacons. In 1588 followed the new regulations with respect to the Roman Congregations, which henceforth were to be fifteen in number. Thus the pope laid the foundations of that wonderful and silent engine of universal government by which Rome still rules the Catholics of every land on the face of the globe.
When we reflect that all this was achieved in a single pontificate of but five years’ duration, the energy of Sixtus V. appears simply astounding. He was, without doubt, by far the most important of the post-Tridentine popes, and his latest biographer might well say that he died overweighted with services to the Church and to humanity. (L. v. P.)
IV.—Period from 1590 to 1870.
The history of the papacy from 1590 to 1870 falls into four main periods: (1) 1590–1648; territorial expansion, definitely checked by the peace of Westphalia; (2) 1648–1789; waning prestige, financial embarrassments, futile reforms; (3) 1789–1814; revolution and Napoleonic reorganization; (4) 1814–1870; restoration and centralization.
1. 1590–1648. The keynote of the counter Reformation had been struck by the popes who immediately preceded this period. They sought to reconquer Europe for the Roman Catholic Church. In the overthrow of the Spanish Armada they had already received a great defeat; with the Peace of Westphalia the Catholic advance was baffled. Sixtus V. was succeeded in rapid succession by three popes: Urban VII., who died on the 27th of September 1590, after a papacy of only 12 days; Gregory XIV. (Dec. 1590 to Oct. 1591); Innocent IX. (Oct. to Dec. 1591).
The first noteworthy pontiff of the period was Clement VIII., who gained a vast advantage by allying the papacy with the rising power of France. Since 1559 the popes had been without exception in favour of Spain, which, firmly possessed of Milan on the north and of NaplesClement VIII., 1592–1605.
